Martin O’Malley has withdrawn his name from the Maryland Democratic presidential primary, and Robert H. Heller, Jr., has withdrawn his name from the Maryland Republican presidential primary. But other Republicans who have announced that they are no longer running have not bothered to withdraw their names from Maryland’s primary, including Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, and Rick Santorum.
The pattern seems to be that when major party presidential candidates end their campaigns, they only act to remove their names (if it isn’t too late) from the ballot of their home state, but they don’t exert the effort to withdraw from other states’ presidential primaries.
Once they suspend, they are unlikely to receive additional contributions. Any paid staffer will jump ship, and vendors will cut them off.
Earlier in the campaign, O’Malley was busking in an effort to raise money. He might not be able to afford a long-distance phone call to a secretary of state outside Maryland to find out what the requirements to withdraw are. The Maryland SOS probably has a Baltimore office that O’Malley can drive to.
I would think the only real reason they bother to remove their names from their home states — O’Malley in Maryland and Graham in South Carolina — is that they don’t want to be embarrassed by winning 1-2% of the vote there.
Elsewhere, it doesn’t really matter. Every vote you get is kind of a bonus. Michele Bachmann dropped out after Iowa in 2012, but nearly six months later she got 12,000 votes and won a delegate in the Texas primary.
Rand Paul’s supporters will probably continue giving him 2-3% in many of the states where his name is on the ballot.
And I expect 99% of the votes cast for Jim Gilmore, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee haven’t been recorded yet because they will happen in the later states.
Are filing fees refundable? In West Virginia, they aren’t so I suspect candidates just want to get their money’s worth.